NASA's 2022 Photographer of the Year winners have been confirmed. This is the fourth photo competition of the international space agency. 

But, unlike other competitions where the public can participate, this one is exclusive for the official photographers and other employees of NASA. 

They can take selfies or capture their activities using their advanced DSLRs and other camera gadgets. 

Gizmodo reported that the NASA Photographer of the Year contest is the space agency's way to appreciate the photographic skills of its staff. 

"Congrats to the first place winners of NASA's fourth annual 'Photographer of the Year' awards," said NASA via its tweet.

The photo entries for NASA's fourth Photographer of the Year competition were not captured this 2022. Instead, they were taken back in 2021.

Based on this pattern, the images that NASA photographers will capture this 2022 will be published this coming 2023 for the fifth NASA Photographer of the Year event.

Now, here are the exact first place images for the Documentation, Portrait, People, and Places categories:

• Portrait: Josh Valcarel's photo showing NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn.
• Documentation: An image of Tess Caswell and Kelsey Young conducting lunar field geology observations at Johnson Space Center's Rock Yard.
• People: A photo of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center engineer technician Ryan Fischer torquing a force gauge ring onto a vibe table.
• Places: Dominic Hart's image shows the National Full-Scale Aerodynamic Complex.

NASA Second, Third Placer Images

Aside from the four mentioned images above, eight more images also won the competition, entering second and third place:

Second Placer Images

• Portrait: Norah Moran (a photo showing Jonny Kim wearing the high-altitude pressure spacesuit)
• Documentation: Chris Gunn (The preparation of NASA James Webb Space Telescope)
• People: Denny Henry (description not provided)
• Places: Norah Moran (The future space suit xEMU) 

Third Placer Images

• Portrait: David Bowman (description not provided)
• Documentation: Bill Stafford (a photo of plain filed in Flagstaff, Arizona.
• People: Jim Ross (A selfie photo while inside the F-15 Eagle N897NA)
• Places: Bill Ingalls (a photo of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Double Asteroid Redirection Test)

If you want to know more details about these images, you can visit NASA's official website for its fourth Photographer of the Year annual event. 

Recently, NASA's JWST shared its first deepest universe images. 

Meanwhile, NASA's Mars Life Explorer now plans to dig the Red Planet underground. 

For more news updates about NASA and its upcoming activities, keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: 'New Era in Astronomy': NASA James Webb Space Telescope's New Stunning Images and The Stories Behind Them

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Written by: Griffin Davis